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How Universities Use Data to Fulfill their Mission: a New Whitepaper

For many years universities have been using data visualization to look at everything from enrollment to space usage. Universities were heavy early adopters of Tableau, in large part to the way they eagerly share best practices. Now a new paper shows how universities are getting value from that data.

Universities are doing everything you can imagine with data. They are putting facilities and registration information on a map to see where space usage is greatest. They are putting their Factbooks online using interactive visualization. They are benchmarking their tuition and graduation rates against peer institutions. They are looking at their survey results. And more.

Brown University looks at trends in staffing and enrollment using data visualization.

This paper outlines eight of the most common ways universities use data to advance their mission. This paper drew from a number of posts in the Tableau Community Higher Education Group, as well as interviews with two leaders in the world of university data. Jon Boekenstedt is DePaul University's Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management. He’s looked at everything from his own data to IPEDS data across universities. Allan Walker is a Business Intelligence Analyst at Utah State University (USU) and has also been pushing a greater understanding of his university’s mission by using data. Both have worked with the rollout of Tableau across their organizations.

Jon runs two excellent blogs: his Admissions Weblog, with some of the best data on college admissions out there, and Higher Education Data Stories, which looks at the whole world of higher ed. Allan is also a blogger, looking at geospatial data in particular at his blog They Walked Together. If you're interested in higher education, check out these blogs for some great stuff. Or download the whitepaper to learn more.